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Agenda America is in the Heart –Questions? Especially for your summary. –How do you feel about the book? Reading Journal 2 –I will send short feedback immediately after class. Prep for Summary Introduce The Book of Salt

America is in the Heart Questions? How do you feel about the book? What are you thinking of the book at the moment? –Confusing because he jumps around a lot between settings in Part III and Part IV –The book is depressing as a whole –All of them are sick but none of them are dying; physically –There is no way to compare my life to how his was –Do the conditions described in America is in the Heart still exist? –Confusing; sometimes a chapter will tell of how someone will die that someone is dead but he appears in the next chapter

Summary Assignment We need to do some work to describe the concluding standpoint of the narrator. –What are appropriate responses to discrimination? –What are inappropriate responses to discrimination? –What are appropriate relations between workers? –What are appropriate relations across genders? –What are appropriate relations between workers and management?

Summary Assignment What are appropriate responses to discrimination? –To voice concerns; not able to soften people’s hearts in another way –To unify Filipinos; uniting with other ethnic groups; uniting with people who are not necessarily workers and are not necessarily people of color –Continually voice concerns; don’t stop; not giving up –Aiming for concrete victories (legislation; winning higher wages or benefits); creating a different society What are inappropriate responses to discrimination? –In some cases, violent responses

Summary Assignment What are appropriate relations between workers? –Workers should stick together What are appropriate relations across genders? –Differences in relationships across race, class, and nationality complicate this in the novel –Respect, caring, equality –Respect for character and morals, not because they are a man or a woman –In boarding school, genders kept separate What are appropriate relations between workers and management? –Better treatment (decent wages, benefits, working conditions) –No favoritism –Democracy

Summary Assignment What are appropriate relations across genders? –There are glimpses of good relationships among Filipino men, between Filipino men and men of other races, and between working men of different races. There are few glimpses of what good relations across genders would be like. We might not have material in the novel to answer this question. –It might be more appropriate to begin with another question: What were the conditions under which people interacted with each other across genders? –What happened in particular scenes? Who was involved?

The Book of Salt Set during the same time as America is in the Heart. Written at a very different time –The Book of Salt published in 2004 –America is in the Heart published in 1943.

The Book of Salt America is in the Heart is partially autobiographical, partially drawn from stories that Bulosan heard about other Filipinos. The Book of Salt is a fictional retelling of the experiences of someone who was born long before the author was born. Much of the material for the novel had to come from research. The Book of Salt jumps around in time; it does not tell the story linearly.

The Book of Salt The protagonist of The Book of Salt is a Vietnamese man who travels to France in order to work during the French colonial period in Vietnam. The protagonist finds work in the house of two famous women, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. There is mention of a Vietnamese cook in Alice B. Toklas’ autobiographical writings.

The Book of Salt Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas are in a same-sex relationship. The protagonist of The Book of Salt becomes involved in a same-sex relationship with a light-skinned African American man.

Homework If you have not yet done Reading Journal 2 then do it ASAP. Begin reading The Book of Salt. (1-49) The summary assignment is due on Tuesday.